Back to Search
Start Over
Quality of life and personality disorders in heroin abusers
- Source :
- Drug and alcohol dependence. 76(1)
- Publication Year :
- 2004
-
Abstract
- Objective: The aim of this study is to describe the personality disorders (PD) and personality profile of heroin-abusers and their quality of life (QoL), and to investigate the correlation between the two. Method: One hundred and eighty heroin-abusers during their residential treatment participated in the study. The Structured Clinical Interview-II (SCID-II) allowed the identification of two subgroups of heroin-abusers on the basis of presence/absence of a PD. All patients filled in the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI), the McGill QoL Questionnaire (MQOL) and an anamnestic sheet. A control group of 63 non-clinical subjects was recruited. Results: Abusers with a PD differ in their personality profile from abusers without PD and score lower on the total MQOL. As regards TCI scales, novelty seeking (NS), reward dependence (RD) and self-directedness (SD) predict the age of onset of the abuse, while cooperativeness (C) is a predictor of the number of community admissions. Discussion: Low scores on self-directedness and cooperativeness in abusers support the hypothesis of an immature character and relational difficulties. Novelty seeking is the only dimension which is altered both in abusers with and without a PD and is not strictly dependent on Axis II comorbidity. QoL is lower in abusers than in controls, according to their physical, psychological and existential suffering. Last, an interesting link emerged between personality and perceived QoL.
- Subjects :
- Adult
Male
medicine.medical_specialty
media_common.quotation_subject
Toxicology
Personality Disorders
Quality of life
medicine
Personality
Humans
Pharmacology (medical)
Psychiatry
media_common
Pharmacology
Analysis of Variance
Heroin Dependence
Cooperativeness
Novelty seeking
medicine.disease
Comorbidity
Personality disorders
Psychiatry and Mental health
Cross-Sectional Studies
Reward dependence
Quality of Life
Temperament and Character Inventory
Female
Psychology
Clinical psychology
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 03768716
- Volume :
- 76
- Issue :
- 1
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Drug and alcohol dependence
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....0de63c6fa96dd1c04d65e075a72ec281